United Kingdom

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/13167838

[...]Seabound found BLOQS, a 32,000-square-foot converted warehouse in the north London suburb of Enfield, fully kitted out with £1.3 million (around $1.7 million) worth of light industrial equipment for all kinds of manufacturing, including wood processing and metal fabrication, laser cutting and engraving, 3D printing, sewing machines, spray painting and more. If that didn’t already make the case for moving in, the flexible membership structure then quickly sealed the deal for Fredriksson and Wen.

The initial sign-up is free, with members simply paying a daily rate for the machinery they need to use, as well as for flexible office and storage space if they need it. Raw materials are available to purchase too, price-matched with local suppliers. And if members need to learn to use a particular piece of equipment, they can pay for training. An added bonus is the on-site restaurant, where an award-winning chef serves a seasonable and affordable Mediterranean menu. Yet the biggest draw for the Seabound team was the community of 1,000 other like-minded members.

The UK's competition watchdog sniffed around the AI industry with a bit more interest than usual on Thursday at an antitrust event in the US.

Speaking at the 72nd Antitrust Law Spring Meeting in Washington, DC, Sarah Cardell, CEO of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, discussed "growing concerns" that the web of connected partnerships between AI technology companies may hinder competition.

"I think it’s fair to say that when we started this work, we were curious," said Cardell. "Now, with a deeper understanding and watching developments very closely, we have real concerns."

Taxi software biz iCabbi recently fixed an issue that exposed the personal information of nearly 300,000 individuals via an unprotected database.

The names, email addresses, phone numbers, and user IDs of the 287,961 affected individuals in the UK and Ireland were all exposed online. According to research shared with The Register ahead of publication, the details of individuals with senior roles in media outlets such as the BBC and various government departments such as His Majesty's Treasury, the UK Home Office, and the Ministry of Justice were included.

A number of former UK Members of Parliament (MPs), as well as one senior policy advisor and one EU ambassador, were caught up in the data exposure, it's understood.

Former sub-postmaster Alan Bates says he will consider raising funds for private prosecutions of Post Office bosses over the Horizon IT scandal.

He told the BBC he would act if the authorities did not take cases forward.

"It was fine when the Post Office brought private prosecutions, so if we've got to do it in return so be it", he said.

Cross posted from: https://feddit.de/post/11081170

"We are handing over such important capability to the net-zero transition to an entity that comes from an authoritarian and hostile state at a time when the European Union and other countries are going in a different direction," says Scottish lawmaker Stewart McDonald, adding this would not be in the UK's economic or energy interests.

Chinese company Mingyang Smart Energy Group was given "priority status" in offshore projects in tbe North Sea.

"This very company that's going to be setting up here in Scotland was declined by our Norwegian neighbours recently for a similar project," McDonald says.

The Glasgow South MP said it came "hot on the heels" of the UK government linking China to recent cyber-attacks on voter data.

He added: "I think the UK government need to explain why a project of this magnitude in an industry that is clearly sensitively strategic has been allowed to go ahead."

Beijing was accused of attempts to access details of MPs critical of the Chinese government, which Mr McDonald said included himself.

"In a statement, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the Royal Air Force (RAF) will repel "any airborne attacks within range" of operations in the region.

It is understood RAF jets have flown over Iraq and Syria, not Israel.

PM Rishi Sunak condemned Iran's "reckless attack", pledging the UK would "continue to stand up for Israel's security". "

Full text archive link: https://archive.is/gGSFb

https://archive.is/2YCnR

[…] Demographically and electorally, boomers are now a fading force. And as the targets of millennial ire increasingly recede from view, they may soon be replaced by another privileged, property-owning elite much closer to home: millennials who have benefited from family wealth.

The millennials vs boomers discourse usually centres on the fact that, despite earning more than their parents’ generation, today’s young adults have been unable to translate that into home ownership and wealth more broadly. In the UK and US alike, the average millennial had accumulated less wealth in real terms by their mid-thirties than the average boomer at the same age. But this aggregate picture obscures what is happening at the top end of the distribution.

[…]

My analysis finds a similar picture in the UK. The average millennial still has zero housing wealth at a point where the average boomer had been building equity in their first home for several years. But the top 10 per cent of thirtysomethings have £300,000 of property wealth to their names, almost triple where the wealthiest boomers were at the same age.

So, while it’s true that in both countries the average young adult today is less well off than the average boomer was three decades ago, that deficit is dwarfed by the gap between rich and poor millennials, which is widening every year.

[…]

The fact that some thirtysomethings now own pricey homes in London, New York and San Francisco, despite it taking the average earner 20 to 30 years to save up the required deposit in these cities, gives away the open secret of millennial success: substantial parental assistance.

[…]

Bee Boileau and David Sturrock at the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that more than a third of young UK homeowners received help from family. Even among those getting assistance there are huge disparities, with the most fortunate 10th each receiving £170,000, compared with the average gift of £25,000.

And these gifts are not just one-off boosts; they compound over time. Say a British millennial in the top 10 per cent of gift recipients bought a home with a top 10 per cent price tag. Putting that gift towards their deposit would save them an additional £160,000 over a 25-year mortgage term due to the lower loan-to-value ratio afforded by a larger deposit and the resulting lower interest costs. This doubles the value of the gift received.

Reports suggest a rise in complaints that stamps bought from legitimate stores are being deemed counterfeit. Anyone who receives a letter with a fake stamp is charged £5 by Royal Mail.

Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith told BBC Breakfast: "China is behind it."

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We are working hard to remove counterfeit stamps from circulation."

Consumers are being warned to look out for strange perforations around the edge of a stamp, a shine to the surface or the colour looking off.

A Labour government would aim to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP "as soon as resources allow", Sir Keir Starmer has said.

The Labour leader also told the i newspaper he would conduct a strategic review of defence and security "to be clear what the priorities are".

Sir Keir's aim matches that of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has also said he wants defence spending to rise to 2.5%

I've really enjoyed this radio4 series about internet culture and the impact that messaging apps have had on our lives/politics.

Each episode is a half hour with different themes: WhatsApp groups, Politicians using WhatsApp, Slack, Chatbots/AI, Discord leakers, Telegram in Russia.

Probably would say the first half is more UK-specific but the show does a good job of making the later episodes relevant, thought provoking.

Appendix 4 in the Cass Review revealed that 6 out of the 7 adult GDC clinics currently operating in the UK refused to collect or share their patient followup data. If you want better care for struggling LGBT kids, you need the data.

https://archive.is/XVnMk

update caught in Buckinghamshire

https://archive.is/wXSmq

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/13292386

The defendants include the founders of law firm Mossack Fonseca which was shut down in 2018.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/FTK32